Horizons Vendeens

When gites will be completely restored and opened for tourists, services -including in the price and whatever the season may be- will be proposed to tourists.

These services are the results of questioning and summary of requirements needed by holidaymakers: Read the rest of this entry »

For us, the first step with a such project of the stone-buildings restoration to create gites was to “be” on the Internet in order to make our name. As we will not have concrete photos before the end of restoration site -for a high-performance website- we have been advised to comment the unfolding of this project on a blog. The result is here if you can read this post today… during the restoration works in Pouzauges, the website will be created and should appear around April 2008, date to be confirmed as well as the official opening of gites. A direct link will be available on this blog as soon as the website “Horizons vendéens” opens.

In the meantime, in order to make our name among the gites, we should obviously belong to tourism professionals and show our reliability and high quality for our gites: Read the rest of this entry »

How can you come and follow the restoration? Or how can you arrive in gites to spend your holidays?

Located in western France, pictures will explain better the location of the gites to be restored than a long detailed comment:

In Vendée, these gites are among the hills of the bocage in Puy Papin, dependent on Pouzauges, driving towards Montournais when coming out « vieux Pouzauges », close to Puy Crapaud -highest point from Pouzauges.

Now, you will discover gites “Horizons vendéens” with its unusual panorama. Read the rest of this entry »

After serveral years working in an export department, I wanted -during my maternity leave- to widen my professional horizon: a work « at home » -in order to be available for my children- by keeping a commercial link towards “outside”.

This idea to create a gite -holiday cottage- or B & B -Bed and Breakfast- has gained ground since April 2006. First, we should restore an old building on our private property; but for various reasons, this project ce projet has fallen through.
As I wished maintaining this welcome idea, our research was about a stone house/building -which arouses curiosity and because of personal taste and of an aesthetic character- in the du Puy du Fou “area”, in the country -to guarantee calm to visitors and to give a whole change of scene with an unusual panorama- but close to comfort for all needs -eating, health and activity…

We carried out this project in 2007 May in Pouzauges: Read the rest of this entry »

The gites-to-be are located in the outbuildings of the Logis du Puy Papin, listed by the Bâtiments de France. Indeed, before the road have divided the domain into several parts, these buildings -built in the 16° Century- will not be able to find their initial functions, but will be restored by keeping the original nature of the listed edifice. Consequently, this restoration needs administrative archives -piece of the plan cadastral napoléonnien, for instance- the help from Mr. Arnauld Delacroix (landscape architect) and of course with the help of the architect in the Bâtiments de France -ABF- in Vendée. Because of the listing of this Logis du Puy Papin, any change and modification for our buildings should have before the agreement from the ABF, in addition to this from the town council in Pouzauges.
These requirements remain restricting with the reply deadlines from the public services and the feeling that this project can be beyond us: actually, our criteria seem sometimes to be so far from the architectural restraints from the public services.

Moreover, these restraints could also appear thwarting for our project because the “Logis”-although listed- is unoccupied and has been neglected for years. If you know something about the owner of this Logis du Puy Papin, do not hesitate to give me his/her name and most all, to insist on him/her to restore the buildings and to do up like new, at least in order to improve the surroundings of the place and most of all to avoid that this Logis finally falls down and that shatters ours efforts!

Why an interior and heated swimming pool? Because it’s a leisure equipment and a requirement of tourist in holiday. Moreover, gites are located in Pouzauges -around 1hour from the Vendée coast-, this service seemed to us more than necessary. We worked on the principle -and with statistics- that the demand of tourist was high and the supply weak in the surroundings of Pouzauges, even more reduced if we take interior swimming pools into account.

Reasons for an interior swimming pool? The swimming pool finds its place in the porches, between the 2 lodgings.
Advantages for this location: Read the rest of this entry »

Reaching gîtes -on the road from Vieux-Pouzauges to Montournais- find below the 1st sight on the stone buildings on the right. For your own information -on the left side- you can see the Logis du Puy Papin:

Then, sight of the front of the gites-to-be with the Logis du Puy Papin:

Let’s go on visiting with the back of the buildings:

Lastly the unusual sight -still in the back of the gites: